Megalosauroidea

Megalosauroidea is a superfamily of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period. The group is defined as Megalosaurus bucklandii and all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with it than with Allosaurus fragilis or Passer domesticus. Members of the group include Spinosaurus, Megalosaurus, and Torvosaurus. They are possibly paraphyletic in nature with respect to Allosauroidea, which is to say some members of this superfamily might be closer to Allosauroids than to each other, which is undesirable in cladistics.

Megalosauroidea

Etemenanki3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
TetanuraePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 129 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 310 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 3 of 310 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 43 of 310 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 58 of 310 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 154 of 310 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 51 of 310 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 310 occurrences208–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences199–194 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences194–189 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences189–184 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences184–179 Mya — about 1 occurrence179–175 Mya — about 1 occurrence175–170 Mya — about 4 occurrences170–165 Mya — about 26 occurrences165–160 Mya — about 13 occurrences160–155 Mya — about 5 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 23 occurrences150–146 Mya — about 22 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 8 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 13 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 11 occurrences131–126 Mya — about 7 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 61 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 23 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 17 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 7 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 9 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 25 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 21 occurrences92–87 Mya — about 1 occurrence87–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–78 Mya — about 1 occurrence78–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences201.4 Mya72.2 Mya208 Mya63 Mya

310 occurrences of Megalosauroidea on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

310 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

85 formations

Morrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 38.52°N, 105.21°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 39.32°N, 110.69°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.28°WMorrison — 44.63°N, 107.81°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 40.46°N, 108.39°WMorrison — 42.04°N, 106.39°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.11°WSao Khua — 16.70°N, 102.25°ESao Khua — 16.68°N, 103.57°ESao Khua — 16.43°N, 104.09°ESao Khua — 16.89°N, 104.08°ESao Khua — 16.80°N, 103.68°ESao Khua — 16.86°N, 104.48°ESao Khua — 17.07°N, 104.16°ESao Khua — 11.56°N, 102.59°ESao Khua — 17.10°N, 102.49°EArcillas de Morella — 40.49°N, 0.42°EArcillas de Morella — 40.63°N, 0.10°WArcillas de Morella — 40.58°N, 0.22°WArcillas de Morella — 40.58°N, 0.03°ELourinhã — 39.40°N, 9.13°WLourinhã — 39.33°N, 9.36°WLourinhã — 39.20°N, 9.12°WLourinhã — 39.27°N, 9.33°WLourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WLourinhã — 39.17°N, 9.36°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 31.51°N, 4.08°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WIfezouane — 31.59°N, 4.18°WIfezouane — 30.79°N, 4.28°WMarnes de Dives — 49.30°N, 0.07°WMarnes de Dives — 49.32°N, 0.00°EMarnes de Dives — 49.32°N, 0.03°WTendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°ETendaguru — 9.84°S, 39.39°EAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 32.82°N, 10.25°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EEl Castellar — 40.58°N, 0.69°WEl Castellar — 40.67°N, 0.70°WEl Castellar — 40.62°N, 0.84°WEl Castellar — 40.46°N, 0.74°WKhok Kruat — 16.43°N, 102.83°EKhok Kruat — 15.23°N, 104.86°EKhok Kruat — 16.23°N, 102.42°EKhok Kruat — 16.60°N, 103.52°EKhok Kruat — 16.54°N, 102.85°EKhok Kruat — 15.76°N, 101.77°EXinlong — 22.64°N, 107.91°EXinlong — 22.80°N, 108.36°EXinlong — 22.37°N, 107.99°EGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WGara Sbaa — 30.90°N, 3.87°WWadhurst Clay — 50.88°N, 0.56°EWadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°EWadhurst Clay — 50.86°N, 0.44°EWessex — 50.67°N, 1.14°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.46°WWessex — 50.63°N, 1.42°WBlesa — 40.95°N, 0.77°WBlesa — 40.85°N, 0.63°WDouira — 31.57°N, 4.20°WDouira — 31.62°N, 4.27°WRomualdo — 7.22°S, 39.27°WRomualdo — 7.18°S, 39.73°WElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EElrhaz — 16.42°N, 9.10°EForest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 52.01°N, 1.90°WForest Marble — 51.92°N, 1.46°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WCotswold Slate — 51.02°N, 3.25°WCotswold Slate — 51.90°N, 1.83°WCamarillas — 40.65°N, 0.88°WCamarillas — 40.61°N, 0.75°WDurlston — 50.60°N, 2.01°WPinilla de los Moros — 42.02°N, 3.25°WPinilla de los Moros — 42.15°N, 3.17°WPinilla de los Moros — 42.30°N, 3.64°WPinilla de los Moros — 42.02°N, 3.29°W

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The named rock units Megalosauroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 61 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 60 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megalosauroidea and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Megalosauroidea and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

940 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 281 sites for Megalosauroidea, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

195 references

Each of the 310 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 183 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Megalosauroidea

Credit
Etemenanki3
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megalosauroidea was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itTetanurae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nopcsa 1928)